Re: Self-rated QoL

[Guest guest]

Thanks Dr. Smita for elaborating my points. In most of the questionnaire, I observed being asked simultaneously to rate 'QoL' and 'overall health'. It suggests ‘overall health’ may not be a true component of QoL! Moreover, I observed from the ‘45 and Up Study’ the possibility of exploring correlation of self-rated QoL, self-rated overall heath, self-rated eyesight and self-rated teeth & gums in relation to self-rated memory. Being a part of this study, I may share some of the results later to you as we are in the stage of statistical analysis (http://www.45andup.org.au/researchunderway/howdohealthandlifestylefactorsrelatetoselfratedmemory.aspx)

 

Regards,

Syed Ziaur Rahman

 

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 4:22 PM, smita sontakke <smitaavanti@...> wrote:

 

  Dear Dr. Syed Ziaur Rahman QoL is a multidimensional concept that can be defined and measured in many different ways. There are four fundamental components of QoL- life satisfaction, self-esteem, health and functioning. Health and functioning have been among the most commonly measured domains in QoL research in the medical arena and are strongly related to measures of self-rated QoL. Self-rated health is recognized as a concept that refers to individual responses to physical, mental and social effects of illness on daily living.  I would like you to come ahead with your comments on this topic. Dr. Smita

 

Hello Everybody, Extremely sorry for starting the discussion late which was due to some unavoidable circumstances. Welcome you all to the new discussion on “QUALITY OF LIFE”.

Friends, we all are very well aware that " It is quality rather than quantity that matters. "  This is universally applicable and gains more importance when this is concerned with life.

The term quality of life(QOL) is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. QOL is a fashionable concept in the field of outcome measurement  and has been enthusiastically adopted by clinicians, researchers, economists and managers.  It has  become increasingly important for a number of reasons. In this discussion we’ll be concentrating on QOL in healthcare. Technological advances in medicine have increased the possibilities for influencing QOL for good or otherwise. They have resulted in high treatment costs which can only be provided on a limited basis and for which some criteria for allocation are required. These advances have been paralleled by changes in lay and professional attitudes to health and illness with the re-emergence of the patient as the important focus of medical care, which are encouraging clinicians and hospitals to 'prove' the effectiveness and quality of their care. So friends, I once again invite you all to be a part of this discussion and contribute your valuable comments.

Regards, Dr. Smita Sontakke Associate Professor Dept. of Pharmacology Govt. Medical College, Nagpur

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Rahman

Will be really interested in learning about the results of your study. As far as overall health is concerned of course it is a component of QoL. A reciprocal relationship between QoL and clinical conditions has been confirmed in various studies. The need to measure QoL arose due to a broadening concept of measuring health status beyond traditional indicators such as mortality and morbidity.

Various scales are available for measuring QoL in chronic disorders. These may be general or specific. The WHOQOL-BREF is one such scale designed by WHO. It is a 26-item scale that produces a QoL profile. It has four domains viz: physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment. It is possible to derive four domain scores. There are also two items that are examined separately: question 1 asks about an individual’s overall perception of QoL and question 2 asks about an individual’s overall perception of their health. The mean scores for these two questions are added up to get the scores for overall QoL. The four domain scores denote an individual’s perception of QoL in each particular domain.

So you see each individual domain score will just reflect the change in that particular domain but overall QoL will give an idea about the overall effect or change in an individual.

Dr. Smita

Hello Everybody, Extremely sorry for starting the discussion late which was due to some unavoidable circumstances. Welcome you all to the new discussion on “QUALITY OF LIFEâ€.

Friends, we all are very well aware that "It is quality rather than quantity that matters." This is universally applicable and gains more importance when this is concerned with life.

The term quality of life(QOL) is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. QOL is a fashionable concept in the field of outcome measurement and has been enthusiastically adopted by clinicians, researchers, economists and managers. It has become increasingly important for a number of reasons. In this discussion we’ll be concentrating on QOL in healthcare. Technological advances in medicine have increased the possibilities for influencing QOL for good or otherwise. They have resulted in high treatment costs which can only be provided on a limited basis and for which some criteria for allocation are required. These advances have been paralleled by changes in lay and professional attitudes to health and illness with the re-emergence of the patient as the important focus of medical care, which are encouraging clinicians and hospitals to 'prove' the effectiveness and quality of their care. So friends, I once again invite you all to be a part of this discussion and contribute your valuable comments.

Regards, Dr. Smita Sontakke Associate Professor Dept. of Pharmacology Govt. Medical College, Nagpur